Team Up for Innovating Tomorrow: Close to Customers, Close to the Future
Today we look behind the scenes of Südzucker Group’s Corporate Development & Services department (CDS) in our latest expert interview with Dr. Sebastian Kunz, Head of CDS. CDS develops new products, technologies, and processes and creates customised solutions tailored to the specific needs of customers along global consumer trends and market demands.
Dr. Sebastian Kunz, Head of CDS gives us some exciting insights into the work of the CDS organisation and explains, how customers can benefit von teaming up with Südzucker Group for innovation. But for now: enjoy the interview and insights!
Editor’s note: As CDS works closely with all divisions in the Südzucker Group, some topics from other divisions will be mentioned in this interview (such as BENEO’s plant-based proteins). In case of interest, please contact us, we will then connect you with the responsible expert inside the organisation.
Südzucker: What industry trends do you see most important for the food and beverage producers looking into the future?
Dr. Sebastian Kunz: I think sugar reduction is a very important and challenging topic. Most people believe that it simply involves replacing sweetness. This way of thinking is too short-sighted, because sugar is not just sweetness—it’s a specific type of sweetness, a specific type of taste, a specific type of mouthfeel, and a specific type of structure. This is only a short list of specific properties that developers must have in mind. So, you see the topic is way more complex than just having a molecule that is making something sweet. But I think this challenge is also an opportunity for us to think a little bit broader in terms of sweetening concepts. So how can you really achieve the type of sweetness of a sugar body and so on. From my perspective this is a great challenge for the future to really fulfill properties that sugar has with sugar replacement.*
The second is of course protein alternatives*, so that means no meat. And I think in this field it will be important to not only talk about brand new products in the sense of this is a trend, but you also have to talk about costs and you also have to talk about performance and in the end those solutions have to become cost competitive to meat. It is not enough to have something that may be unique, because in the end the customer decides, and costs are an essential parameter for the customer’s decisions. If alternative proteins become cost competitive to meat then we do not just talk about vegetarian products but also about hybrid solutions, which will leverage this market.
* If you are interested in plant-based proteins or sugar replacement BENEO, part of Südzucker Group offers a broad portfolio of plant-based proteins and sugar replacement concepts
A third topic that I believe is important and that will continue as a trend is clean label products. So, clean label products means that you want to get rid of those E-numbers that are of course critically assessed by consumers. And this means to find ways how you can change product properties with physical technologies or biotechnology.
Südzucker: In your opinion, how does the Südzucker Group live research and innovation and can you name some important milestones and success cases in the recent past for the Südzucker Sugar Division?
Dr. Sebastian Kunz: I think it’s important to differentiate between an inside world and an outside world. So we have an inside world meaning we talk to Südzucker Group’s divisions and within the divisions the new business development people are the very important business partners for us because they generate ideas and more importantly, they are in contact with customers.
The second is the outside world. So, as people having an R&D background we go outside, we go to conferences or we talk to potential industry partners. This goes even to the stage of political stakeholders and all this together can give you impressions and can generate ideas where the future may be.
When it comes to important milestones, there are so many. So let me just pick up a recent one: BeetKraft® is a fibre made of Sugar Beet Pulp for the paper and packaging industry that can be an alternative to traditional wood fibres. This is a project where we think about utilizing a product that is only a side product of sugar production. BeetKraft® is the result of intensive innovation work that enables us to process sugar beet by-products into a pulp for paper and cardboard packaging. As a future-oriented alternative to traditional wood pulp, BeetKraft® enables up to 40% of wood fibres to be replaced in the paper formulation.
But we also have many other examples, only to mention our innovative fondant solutions. Here we are very customer-oriented and are continuously working on what the customer demand is and developing solutions that are really fixed, tied to the properties that our customers are searching for.
Südzucker: So where do you see the strengths or even the USP of Südzucker Group CDS in the industry?
Dr. Sebastian Kunz: If you look at the people that are working in our department, to our colleagues, they seem to be experts. But if you compare them to people in R&D departments in other companies, then those people are really all-rounders. We cover a very broad spectrum of different activities from product and process development, continuous improvement of products and processes, but also nutrition science. When it comes to health benefits, someone has to take care of the nutrition science and to do scientific studies etc. So, all this makes us really unique and we are lucky that we have a highly motivated and talented team to be able to cover all these different topics.
If you look at our history, then we really come from the service idea. We are providing services to our business partners. That means we are working in the divisions and we know the demands of the divisions and we are very close to applicability. That’s pretty unique.
Südzucker: How do you see the role of CDS in terms of supporting industry customers? Why should customers team up with Südzucker for innovating tomorrow?
Dr. Sebastian Kunz: We are always involved when it comes to quality, analytics, and specifications. This is a very important part for customers, but this is, let’s say, the “normal need that you have to fulfill”. But what’s really important to us is also to be customer-oriented when it comes to new products and innovations. And we try to take the ideas or the needs from the customer in special sugar products like caramel or fondant and really try to develop what the need of the customer is to cover this and to find customized solutions.
Südzucker Sugar Division‘s exertise in sugar & sweetening solutions
We therefore really look into solutions. We have application laboratories that serve different divisions of the Südzucker Group. Specifically for the Sugar Division, we can work on chocolate, we can work on bakery products, we can work on sweets or ice cream. And this is where we can take the customer into our laboratories and work on customer-oriented solutions. This is where we are really customer-centered.
Dr. Sebastian Kunz (PhD) is the Head of Südzucker Group’s Corporate Development & Services (CDS). He describes himself as a “chemist by training.” He initially studied chemistry at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern (Germany) before completing his PhD at the Technical University of Munich. He then went abroad and undertook a postdoc at UC Berkeley in California (USA) in the field of chemical engineering.
In 2012, he returned to Germany and began his habilitation as an Independent Research Group Leader at the University of Bremen. At this time he was already working very solution oriented, filed a technology patent and founded a start-up based on this technology that was later sold to a global company. Six years later, in 2018, he joined Südzucker Group in the Corporate Development & Services department, focusing on carbohydrate chemistry and catalysis.
Südzucker: As a final question, what developments do you see in the future?
Dr. Sebastian Kunz: I strongly believe that bioeconomy is the future, meaning you have a certain type of biomass and you produce different types of products out of it.
We see this also clearly on the agenda of the European Union. Südzucker Group is a corporate group of bioeconomy and with our strategic pillars, plant-based proteins on one hand, but also bio-based chemicals on the other hand, we show that we will even further broaden our product spectrum. This makes us unique, but this makes us also interesting for potential partners, since we really try to think in plant-based solutions for our customers.
Furthermore, for everyone to whom climate neutrality is an important feature for a product we are an interesting partner. We have not only ambitious goals, but with our Carbon Contracts for Difference for the production site in Zeitz and recent activities in Poland, we also have a clear plan how to produce sugar climate neutrally in the near future.
Südzucker: Thank you for taking the time for this interview and we wish you great success in the future.
